


Spells Are Reversible

by singerofsimplesongs



Series: Scenes from Season Nine [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Season 9 Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-07
Updated: 2013-10-07
Packaged: 2017-12-28 18:35:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/995173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singerofsimplesongs/pseuds/singerofsimplesongs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In early April, a rouge reaper approaches them during a hunt. She says she has information from Bobby Singer and a way to get into Heaven. (Prequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/809760">"This Is From Me"</a>)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spells Are Reversible

In early April, a rouge reaper approaches them during a hunt. She says she has information from Bobby Singer and a way to get into Heaven. She also tells them Tessa sends her regards, but this is apparently completely unrelated. Dean can sense Castiel’s discomfort at the sudden idea of returning to heaven, so they accept the note from Bobby, and send back a promise that they will contact the reaper when they are ready to proceed. 

They wait until they are back in the bunker before they actually open the note. They’ve decided that opening it in the safety of the bunker is better than accidentally revealing the information to prying eyes. 

All it contains are the ingredients for a spell and the short but sweet, “Spells can be reversed, ya idjits.” 

Without a word, Cas retreats to the room he and Dean now share, and Dean leaves Sam at the table in order to follow him. 

“Talk to me, Cas,” he says from the doorway. 

“We’ve been searching for this for months,” Cas snaps. “And a reaper just suddenly shows up with a note from Bobby? How can we even trust this?”

Dean shrugs. 

“We can’t. Not yet anyway. I’ll make some calls. But a rouge reaper helped us find a back door once before, and the spell looks decent, so I’ll look into it Cas. We just don’t go in guns blazing, that’s all.”

Cas nods and looks sadly down at the floor. 

“Come here,” Dean adds. 

Dean has an armful of former angel seconds later, and yeah, he gets it. Cas wants to feel useful again and there’s now this thing dangling in front of him, but he can’t do anything about it. Dean places a kiss into Cas’ hair and sighs. 

“We’ll figure it out okay? At least now we have a lead.”

Cas nods into his chest and they stand there together for a while. 

Two weeks later, Cas finds out that Dean’s calls involve contacting Tessa to check the status of the reaper and contacting Crowley and Death to check the validity of the spell. Eyes on fire, he comes storming into the library, shouting about recklessness and stupidity. About how Dean could have been _killed_ and Dean just kind of lets him continue on for a while. After all, he does have news, and it is good, so he doesn’t really need to fight back. 

“Are you even listening to me?” Cas finally snaps. 

“Yeah, yeah, Cas. I could have been killed. I’m the stupidest man you’ve ever met. You love me. I heard you.”

Cas squints. 

“I didn’t say that last part,” he deadpans. 

“Right,” Dean replies. “It was implied though. And I love you too.”

Cas raises an eyebrow.

“You’re trying to distract me.”

“A little. But I did get the information verified and Death even confirmed that the message was from Bobby and he gave his blessing in restoring the natural order of things.”

Cas visibly relaxes and kisses Dean on the cheek. 

“Thank you. I still think that was incredibly reckless, but thank you.”

They decide to summon the reaper the following Friday and see if they can finally fix this mess. The ingredients for the spell are in order, they just need the blood of a full status angel and that might be hard. Dean’s almost confident they will make it work. They always seem to somehow. 

The reaper actually brings them to the Roadhouse and Dean cannot breathe. Because his family is here. Mom and Dad. Bobby and Karen. Ellen, Jo and wow that must be Jo’s dad. And of course Ash and Rufus and Pam are all here and oh _shit_ , he’s holding Cas’ hand. He didn’t think he’d ever be introducing his former-angel now-boyfriend to his parents, but his life is really freaking weird, so he shouldn’t really be surprised. 

John is looking at Cas like he doesn’t know what to make of him, but Mary just smiles warmly at them both. She shifts he gaze to Sam and yeah Dean thinks his brother is crying a little. What a girl. 

“Mom, Dad. This is my—“ Dean pauses, unsure exactly how to introduce the man beside him. Finally he finishes, “Castiel.”

Bobby snorts and moves away from the bar. 

“Your Castiel, boy? Sounds pretty damn possessive if you ask me,” but he’s all smiles and Dean thinks he’s probably kidding. Probably.

Cas pulls his hand out of Dean’s and reaches out to shake John’s hand. It’s tentative and, based on their body language, there are things that both of them don’t like about the other. Mary on the other hand, throws her arms around Cas and kisses his cheek and says something about always knowing angels were watching over her boys. 

Dean takes back what he thought about Sam earlier, because he’s crying a little now too. 

Ellen pours drinks and Sam, Dean, and Cas exchange a glance and sure, they can probably stay for a little while. Dean would like to run some stuff over with Bobby or Ash anyway. 

A little while later, Jo, Ellen, Bobby, and Sam are bitching about a long-standing bet and Dean stops to listen long enough to hear Sam say, “Well, technically Cas said it first.” He almost steps in, but if they bet on him and Cas, so be it. He even laughs a little. 

John eventually comes over and leans against the bar. 

“I should be mad at you for making a deal for Sam’s life. It’d be hypocritical of me, but I should be. I made a deal for your life and you threw it away.”

Dean bows his head and is about to mumble a yes sir, when John speaks again. 

“I should be, but I’m not. I’m actually insanely proud of you. And Sam. You’ve done stuff I couldn’t have dreamed of. Hell, I’m even proud of Cas. And that kid looks at you like the sun shines out your ass, so at least something good came out of it. Mary clearly loves him, so what the hell.”

And sure enough, Dean looks up and Mary and Cas are chatting away. It might be sappy and not-very-Dean-like, but he makes the decision right then and there that Cas is it for him. 

“Thanks, Dad.”

John nods. 

“You’ve done good, Dean.”

After that, Dean spends a little more time mingling before he finally seeks out Ash. 

“Tell me how we’re going to do this,” Dean says over the noise in the bar. 

“Well, Metatron keeps Cas’ grace in a vial, so I’m assuming one of you will want to go after that. He visits heavens sometimes so we’ve all seen him around. He also keeps Naomi holed up in his office so if you want to willingly get angel blood, I’m pretty sure she’s your best bet. There’s no way he’s expecting an ambush from the inside, so we figure you can just walk right in. We’re all gonna be stationed in places to keep watch in case anything goes south. You’ll just have to wait until he leaves to go visit heavens and go from there.”

“How will we know when he’s gone?”

Ash rolls his eyes. 

“What part of MIT did you not understand way back when I told you? I have a whole system set up, _mi amigo_. I’ll keep you posted. ”

Dean nods and thanks him before going to find Cas and Sam. He pulls them briefly from their conversations to tell them the plan. Both seem to think it’s the best course of action. 

“I want to get my grace from Metatron,” Cas says finally. 

Dean is unsurprised and offers his own help, but Cas turns him down. 

“I have to do this on my own,” he says. “You and Sam can do the spell and help my sister.”

Dean nods and they disperse again to wait for Ash’s signal. Dean originally intends to mingle some more, but Cas has gravitated back to Mary and Dean decides to join them. It’s great to talk to his mom again and she just adores Cas. Dean can see it when she catches his eye and grins. Which is good because he kinda adores Cas too, though he’ll probably never admit it in exactly those words. 

All too soon, however, Ash is tapping him on the shoulder and it’s go time and oh god, what if something bad happens to Cas. Metatron is an angel and Cas isn’t anymore. Dean looks at Cas and panic is clawing up his insides. Maybe this is how Cas felt so many months ago that night in the phone booth after the angels fell. Because that was when Cas thought he couldn’t go home and Dean realizes he can’t truly go home without Cas. Not anymore.

Which makes him wonder if Cas is going to stay here after he gets his grace back. Which of course the answer is yes, because it would be absolutely insane for him not to. Cas won’t need him anymore. He’ll be an angel again, and maybe he won’t even feel the same way about Dean either. Angels feel things differently than humans. 

So yeah, Cas is probably going to stay. And Dean supposes that’s okay, because if Cas is happy, he’ll be happy. 

He’s absolutely certain, however, that his room is going to feel pretty empty without Cas in it. 

Sam and Cas are over saying goodbyes, and Dean is just standing there. He doesn’t want to say goodbye to these people again. He doesn’t want to say goodbye to Cas. 

Castiel, of course, notices that something’s wrong. Dean watches Cas pull away from his hug from Bobby and glance over at him. He does a double take and worry is etched across his face. Cas excuses himself from the group and joins Dean just at the edge. 

“You’ll be able to see them all again you know,” he says. 

Dean nods and looks at Cas for a long time. He just needs a few more moments to memorize everything about him, because their relationship will be different after this. Dean just doesn’t get happy endings. He’s a hunter who ended up dating an angel. A happy ending just doesn’t seem likely at this point. 

“You’ll see me again too,” Cas adds softly. 

Dean swallows the discomfort in his throat and leans against Cas just slightly. 

“Just be careful, okay?”

Cas nods and threads his fingers through Dean’s. 

“Of course,” he replies. “You be careful too.”

“Stab Metatron in the gut for me, okay?”

Cas straight up _laughs_. He throws his head back and laughs long and loud and even has to lean against Dean a bit for support. Dean doesn’t think it’s really that funny. He’s totally serious. He really wants to just stab the guy, but Cas has to do this on his own. 

Cas stops laughing and beams at Dean. 

“I will,” he promises. 

They share a quick kiss and then Cas and Ash are making their way out of the bar. Ash is hastily promising that he’ll get Cas there safely and Cas is saying one last goodbye to everyone in the bar. He doesn’t, however, say goodbye to Sam or Dean. And Dean’s fine with that, he is, but when Cas and Ash have vanished from the bar, he suddenly wishes he kissed him harder and actually said goodbye. And it sucks. 

Bobby nods to Dean to tell him he’s ready to go, and Dean finally gets around to saying goodbye. There’s hugs and tears and kisses on heads and cheeks and it’s pretty sappy but damn it, this is his family. Everyone here is either a Winchester by blood or an honorary one, so who frickin’ cares?

The goodbyes end on his mom and she’s much smaller than him, but damn she can give good hugs. 

“I never wanted you to grow up like I did,” she says. “But I am proud of you. You and Sam and Cas.”

“Thanks Mom,” Dean manages. 

He pulls away and Mary’s hand is still on his arm. She looks up at his face and Dean knows in a second she can tell he’s worried about Cas because she gets that mom look. Her face softens a little but she still looks protective and like maybe she thinks her son is a little bit dense sometimes. She gives his arm a squeeze and pulls herself toward him to lean on. 

“He’ll come back to you Dean. That man thinks you are the most important person in all of human history and loves you just as much. He’s everything a mom wishes for her son, and he is not going to just leave you. You’ll see.” 

Dean knows in that moment he can’t leave without another hug, so he buries her in his arms and kisses her on the head. 

“I love him too,” he whispers. Like it’s a secret and maybe it is, because he’s never really told anyone that other than Cas.

Mary must sense that too, because she sort of scoffs and hugs him tighter. 

“Oh Dean,” she says. “No one doubts that for a second. Especially not him.”

“I love you, Mom.”

And Sam is suddenly there and she has an arm on both their elbows. 

“I love you both, so much. You’ve done very well and we’re all so proud of you.”

Dean still has tears in his eyes when Bobby drops them off in the corporate offices. Bobby turns to leave, and Dean stops him. 

“Tell Ash thanks for being a genius and figuring out how to bring you all together. I figure you have to be pretty smart to hack Heaven.”

Bobby smiles at them both. 

“I’ll tell him,” he promises. “But don’t you dare come back too soon, ya hear?”

Sam and Dean nod, and then Bobby is gone. Sam holds up the bag of ingredients and Dean grins, because it’s finally time to put those angels back where they came from.

**Author's Note:**

> Pretty sure this will all be super AU by like tomorrow but again, I need season 9, and it's almost here, and I wanted to get this posted before it all got shot to hell. I also wanted to get this posted as a prequel to my fic I wrote early in the hiatus.


End file.
